We're just getting ready to ship a magazine out the door and head down to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this Wednesday to see the latest and greatest offerings from the world's premier boat companies. It's usually a big time for all of us editorial types since we get to walk around on nice boats during the day and eat at fancy restaurants on an ad rep's tab each night.

I've probably been to Cabo San Lucas on the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico 15 times - either running the Los Cabos Billfish Tournament or hosting a Marlin University session. In all those times, I've never seen it rain a drop. This year, as my inbound plan banked over the peninsula, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Instead of a stark brown desert interrupted by spurts of green, I looked down on a verdant plain. It looked like the top of a jungle.

My office smells like a rubber chicken. Every time someone walks in, I have to hear the, "Phew! What stinks in here?" along with the accusing evil eye. No, I don't have a latex fetish; I'm just buried under a pile of rubber teasers.

Although the fishing could have been a lot better, Panama sure offered up some grand adventures. Even getting out of the States wasn't easy. Everyone's flights were right on time, and we all met up in Miami for the trip over. After boarding our flight to Panama, however, things started to get a little funky.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Panama's Las Perlas Islands and the island of San Jose for our next session of Marlin University. This trip represents a first for us; we've never hosted a trip to Panama before, and I have to say I'm excited to get back there once again. Although I'm a little worried that we might run into a bunch of rain, my good friend Trevor Cockle got us to come down during the month of August since he's experienced some good blue bites during that time before.

Well, I just got back from my first "captain's" job at the White Marlin Open up in Ocean City, Maryland, and I didn't win a dime. I did, however, have a blast fishing with the boys from StingRay Tackle, Ray Lorenzo and John Tobias, as well as mates Charles Perry and Walker Holcomb, Orazio Nastaze and Alan Seidel. We fished the brand-spanking-new 34-foot Jarrett Bay center console, and I really put her in some tough situations.

Good news! I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that the blue marlin are still busting it up on the North Drop down in St. Thomas. I just returned from a Marlin U session down there, and our two boats experienced some pretty good fishing - even on the dark of the moon. Local wisdom says that the best bite for blues occurs during the week prior to and after the full moon. But after eight years of planning Marlin U trips down to St. Thomas, I can say with certainty that you can get plenty of bites on the dark periods as well.

I'm looking at the calendar on my office wall, and the upcoming weeks are chock-full of work, action and more work. I'm presently working on a schedule for our brand-spanking-new newsletter design and trying to get the 2010 feature schedule together for Marlin. At the same time, I leave for the St. Thomas leg of Marlin U tomorrow and come back two days before I head up to Ocean City, Maryland, to fish the White Marlin Open on the new Jarrett Bay 34 Center Console.

We are deep into compiling our August/September travel issue, and I'm pretty sure you are all going to like what we deliver. We've got Capt. George Sawley catching giant yellowfin tuna in Venezuela; Pat Ford pursuing blue marlin in Guatemala; Tony Peña covering the opening of a new lodge in Panama; several captains, mates and readers recounting their best/worst travel stories; and a sneak peek at Zane Grey's last published work, Tales of the Gladiator.

We just completed another Marlin University down in Costa Rica, and although the fishing proved a bit better than our last trip, we seemed to hit Carrillo in between bites again. We spent our first two fishing days in some real pretty, clear blue water, with temperatures in the low 80s and rips and currents galore. Everything looked perfect, but we couldn't find any bait. Usually, boats here find baits schools down deep with their sounders and work the immediate area until predators drive them to the surface.